David Given Schwarm

Hope

During the 2020 May the Fourth Marathon event I really tried to focus on hope–how it was used in Star Wars and how I can learn to use it in my daily life.

Hope is not a Plan has been a recent passion of mine from the SRE world, but Star Wars was renamed A New Hope for a reason. But there is an element of Chance and Binary Opposition within the Star Wars archaeology which I also wanted to consider.

What was this New Hope, what was the Old Hope, where is Hope, what value does Hope Have, How can I use Hope effectively in my life–these were the questions I was asking at 12:15 when I pushed play on the first film.

The First Third

the first three films in the Skywalker Saga are likely the ones I know the best–I watched them a lot when Jack was young, I saw them for the first time as an adult, I have argued with haters about them a LOT.

The films are not very great–some fantastic special effects work and clever & interesting plot twists to make connections to the main trilogy.

But, overall (outside of Episode 3 which I love), there is not that much quotable creative inspiration to be found in this series–they are character / plot driven Hollywood adventure films.

There are some reasonable quotes around Hope and some solid use of personal aspiration to create change that I enjoyed, but overall the late night start did not provide me that much guidance–the real break through this year happened for me in the Final Third.

Trilogy

The main Star Wars trilogy is so fantastic and meaningful to me it is hard to put into words. Episode Four, which I started around 8:00 AM is just absolutely perfect in every single possible way.

The move to a New Hope, which inspired a lot of my thinking this year, represents a lot of different things to me personally–most of them along the lines of needing to constantly be refreshing our hopes. Almost Daily.

Everyone love Empire, but as a kid I found it dark & transitional. I watched with Tony and he loves it so much it was infectious.

Return really is such a great finish and has such an amazing closing sequence that I left the couch after this one feeling refreshed and rejuvenated–like Good really will allays win, that love is real, that the universe makes sense, all of it.

Hope in this Trilogy is generally placed in Individuals–Help me Obi-Wan, He is our only Hope, There is another, there is Hope–all that stuff. The fact that people not place, not institutions, not principles are where hope lies–and not hope in ourselves, but rather Hope in someone else is so empowering. Really great stuff.

The Final Third

Half way through episode 7 there was a personal crisis. When Cody finishes a Harry Potter book we watch the film as a family. I had “reserved the tv” for May 4th, but he finished the book while I had the monopoly on the screen and wanted his reward. I did not want to give it up–I was worried I would not have time to finish. There was a negotiation which got agressive–no light sabers, but there were squirt guns involved. Feelings were hurt. I pouted. It was ugly. Lisa was awesome in trying to rebuild moral–focus the family.

In the end, I took a 3 hour Chamber of Secrets break before the 8th Film. This is like planning to run a marathon and learning it is a triatholon two thirds of the way in. But I was up for the challange.

Lisa had not seen Episode 8 & 9, so she watched 8 with me which was nice. She has social justice warrior trauma and pushes back HARD on a lot of what is in 8–but overall, we had a good time together watching on the couch.

I finished strong at 11:45 PM. A huge accomplishment this year!